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Intermodal Surface Transportation Act Of 1991 Case Study

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The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) was created to better the transportation infrastructure in the United States. One of the main reasons for the act was that it “emphasized intermodalism - the seamless linking of highway, rail, air, and marine transportation” (Schweppe, 2001). The legislation enabled the state and local government to have a greater flexibility in transportation programs such as safety, traffic mitigation and reduced emissions. This has lead to many positive changes in the enhancement of roads and bridges along the intermodal transport system to include historic and scenic improvements. What the legislation did not enable the federal government to be directly involved with innovative changes …show more content…

At present the trucking industry functions on public roads and the railways function as privately owned. Each mode needs to be addressed equally to make improvements. If the government implements or funds a change to a road network it should be done to either add a benefit to the rail system. As innovations are ready to be utilized there may be a need for government assistance in implementation due to the scale of which the transportation modes operate. The nation’s railway is the largest in the world due to the amount of land mass it crosses and size of the country. A balance needs to be achieved between the companies that own the transportation companies and the nations end goal that is beneficial to both the public and private sector. The many different trucking and railway companies needs legislature to be in effect on a federal level so each company falls within the guidelines across the country. The private and public sectors need to synchronized their future goals and develop timelines together to reach their end

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